


leather clad heroes and soft kisses

by Anonymous



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akumatized Marinette, F/M, MariBat, Salt, adrinette mentioned, adrinino - Freeform, anti love square, but im sorry i mostly know about maribat thru fics, im really salty but this ship is so good, ive put damian in leather bc PARALELLS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21963760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: There's a new hero in town who's gonna shake up Marinette and Adrien's relationship.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Nino Lahiffe, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Damian Wayne, later - Relationship
Comments: 3
Kudos: 105
Collections: Anonymous





	leather clad heroes and soft kisses

Adrien had been in love with Marinette for a long time, or at least was convinced he was. 

He'd gotten over his crush on Ladybug (for the most part, she still made his heart flutter when she laughed) and Marinette seemed perfect. 

She was talented, kind, and pretty, and she actually liked Adrien! Not just for his looks or his family (although that didn't hurt) but for him. 

They'd started dating a year ago, and things were good. He was trying to get the courage to tell her he was Chat Noir, because he wanted her to know before he asked to marry her, so she knew what she was getting into. But he was thinking of a way to talk to Ladybug about it, and if he was ready for marriage at all, and what his father would say. 

But he was happy with her, and their friends seemed ecstatic that their OTP had finally gotten together.

Until a new hero appeared...

Chat was not used to this. It felt like... competetion wasn't the right word, but it's safe to say normally he was the only leather clad superhero in Paris, let alone the only one lucky enough to be Ladybug's friend. 

But Ladybug had been more and more distracted by the handsome new hero. 

And Chat... well, despite that twinge of jealousy, he was happy for her. Even if it hurt that she seemed more focused on him than her, that she bantered with him and forgot Chat, that they had each others backs and he felt left out. 

It was fine. They were all an efficient team, still, and that was what mattered. 

Okay, so they were dating now. 

Kissing before she ran off to transform.

Chat was happy for her, he really was, but she'd always said dating another superhero was too dangerous. Maybe she just had never liked him. 

It had been nice of her to let him down gently, he supposed, even if she did flirt back--she definitely knew he'd never make a serious move without her consent, and he'd never consider saying she lead him on, but... well the flirting had given him hope. Foolish hope.

(But she'd also had a point. It WAS dangerous.)

It didn't matter now, in any case. He didn't like her like that anymore, he honestly didn't. But still, her behavior rubbed him the wrong way. But it was fine. 

He had Marinette, and his friends, like Nino. 

Then he caught Marinette in bed with another man. 

He'd cried, yelled a bit, stormed off... only to find she'd been so upset at being caught and chasing off her lover (what kind of name was Damian, anyway? He sounded like a vampire) that she'd been akumatized. 

And he hadn't wanted to fight her. 

He really, really hadn't. 

No matter how angry he was, he didn't want to hurt her, akuma or not. 

But Ladybug never showed. 

Neither did her new friend.

He stood alone, trying to face down his girlfriend, wondering bitterly if they were too busy somewhere else.

He managed to get the help of Carapace and Rena. 

The akuma was suprisingly easy to subdue--Hawkmoth had been sloppy, making it too fast. 

Sometimes Adrien wondered if Hawkmoth was targeting him, as a civilian. People close to him kept getting hurt. 

And then.

Marinette was Ladybug. 

She'd been... cheating on him. 

For so long.

She'd known he was Chat. 

She'd lost interest, especially once she'd found out, but kept stringing him along, too afraid to break the heart of her former crush, to let go of something she used to want so badly just in case she regretted it, too wary to burn bridges with the Agrestes. 

She left him to go find Damian. 

Adrien didn't know what to do. 

Nino asked him what happened. 

Adrien burst into tears. 

Nino and Chloé were the only ones there for him. Alya and the rest of the class mostly seemed to assume he'd done something to hurt her or drive her away. 

He didn't deny it. He blamed himself. 

He hadn't been good enough. He must have been... too annoying, too silly, too cowardly. Too something. 

This was probably his fault somehow. 

After all how could it be Marinette's fault? She was kind and beautiful and sweet and hard working. She could do no wrong. She was the class darling! How could it be anyone but Adrien's fault? 

It was months later he quietly admitted this to Nino. 

Nino hugged him and said that sometimes people weren't what they seemed. 

No one was perfect, least of all the people who looked it. 

Well, Adrien knew that from experience. 

He kissed Nino when he was drunk and sad and craving comfort. 

They pretended it didn't happen and ignored how the physical affection they'd always shared lingered longer. 

Nino kissed Adrien fully sober on Christmas Eve, under the mistletoe. 

It was soft and perfect and sweet and, Adrien would think later, nothing like how Marinette had kissed him. She didn't do soft. She was all fierce passion with him. 

That had been nice, but this... this was also nice. In a different way. 

After some long and occasionally awkward conversations, Adrien and Nino began dating. 

Hestiantly. 

Adrien's father didn't really approve but reluctantly allowed it. If they ever wanted to get married there might be trouble, but they'd cross that bridge when they got to it. 

But honestly... Adrien felt happy. Happier than he'd ever been. Even with hestiant cuddling and hand-holding and soft kisses, with all the unsurety they faced... Adrien was beginning to realize he hadn't been happy with Marinette. He'd been content. Comfortable. He'd trusted her (which had apparently been a mistake) and liked her, but he hadn't loved her. (But, well, she hadn't loved him either. She'd been infautated, and there was quite a difference.)

He did like and trust Nino... but he was also geniunely happy. It wasn't perfect, but... it was... really, really good. 

It was awkward fighting with Ladybug now. The trust between them had been broken. They ended up each gravitating to other partners--Chat to Carapace (they had told each other their identities soon into the relationship, and Carapace had had WORDS with Ladybug) and Ladybug to Robin.

The balance was off, but it would due. For now. 

The future worried Adrien. But he had someone he could actually trust now to face it with. 

Hawkmoth wasn't giving up anytime soon, after all.


End file.
